The moral travesty of Israel seeking Arab, Iranian compensation

The game is afoot. Israel, believe it or not, is demanding that seven Arab countries and Iran pay $250 billion in compensation for what it claims was the forceful exodus of Jews from these nations during the late 1940s. The events Israel is citing allegedly occurred at a time when Zionist Jewish militias were actively uprooting nearly 1 million Palestinian Arabs and systematically destroying their homes, villages and towns throughout Palestine.

The Israeli announcement, which reportedly followed “18 months of secret research,” should not be filed under the ever-expanding folder of shameless Israeli misrepresentations of history. It is part of a calculated effort by the Israeli government, and specifically by Minister for Social Equality Gila Gamliel, to create a counter-narrative to the rightful demand for the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees ethnically cleansed by Jewish militias between 1947 and 1948.

But there is a reason for the Israeli urgency to reveal such questionable research: The relentless US-Israeli attempts of the last two years to dismiss the rights of Palestinian refugees, to question their numbers and to marginalize their grievances. It is all part and parcel of the ongoing plot disguised as the “deal of the century,” with the clear aim of removing from the table all major issues that are central to the Palestinian struggle for freedom.

“The time has come to correct the historic injustice of the pogroms (against Jews) in seven Arab countries and Iran, and to restore, to hundreds of thousands of Jews who lost their property, what is rightfully theirs,” said Gamliel.

The language — “to correct the historic injustice” — is no different from that used by Palestinians, who have for 70 years and counting been demanding the restoration of their rights as per UN General Assembly Resolution 194. The deliberate conflating of the Palestinian narrative with the Zionist narrative is aimed at creating parallels in the hope that a future political agreement would see both grievances cancel each other out.

Contrary to what Israeli historians want us to believe, there was no mass exodus of Jews from Arab countries and Iran, but rather a massive campaign orchestrated by Zionist leaders of the time to replace the Palestine Arab population with Jewish immigrants from all over the world.

The determination of the early Zionists to establish a “national home” for Jews at the expense of the country’s Palestinian Arab population was communicated openly, clearly and repeatedly throughout the formation of early Zionist thought.

To hold Arabs and Iran responsible for this bizarre and irresponsible behavior is a transgression on the true story, in which neither Gamliel nor her ministry are interested.

Seventy years have passed since the Nakba — the catastrophe of 1948 — and Israel has still not taken responsibility for its actions, nor have Palestinian refugees received any measure of justice, however small or symbolic.

For Israel to be seeking compensation from Arab countries and Iran is a moral travesty, especially as Palestinian refugees continue to languish in camps across Palestine and the Middle East.

Indeed “the time has come to correct the historic injustice” — not of Israel’s alleged pogroms carried out by Arabs and Iranians, but the real and most tragic destruction of Palestine and its people.